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questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

smn703
Explorer C

I am traveling with THREE kids.  Two teenagers - one of which is on crutches and a knee scooter due to surgery and can not put weight on his leg and is in a boot,  and a toddler that uses a car seat on the plane.  

 

1. Surely they can't check his crutches with our suitcases - right?  so we will need to take them onto the plane with us?  And I wouldn't' trust them to check his scooter with our suitcases because it would surely get damaged.  (like if he used a wheelchair or tried to use crutches through the entire airport)

 

2. This means he will ride his knee scooter to the gate and the other teen will carry his crutches for him.  That's fine.  But where do they go on the plane?  Will they take the knee scooter at the door and put it under the plane with the strollers?  And then we have to wait for it to be brought up before he can get off the plane??  And the crutches will go where?  i think they are too long for the overhead compartments.

 

3. I'm sure he must preboard - knee scooter and boot and such...  and he will need help - so I could go with him BUT my toddler would need to go with me as well... but I can't carry the toddler and the carseat and help the teen by myself - so my other teen would need to preboard with us (he carries car seat and crutches, I carry toddler and help the hurt teen.... will they let all 4 of us pre-board???

 

4. If they do let all 4 of us pre-board then he'd obviously try to sit in the front row, I could put the car seat toddler in the window seat in his row and I squeeze between them - but I feel guilty with that plan so I think we'd put the car seat child, me and the other teen behind him to leave the other 2 (middle and aisle) seats in his row open and put him against the window - to accommodate other travelers with disabilities?

 

I've traveled a ton with southwest but never had a situation like this

5 REPLIES 5

Re: questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

smn703
Explorer C

Should say that we booked flights from a different airport that's hours away from our local airport simply so we could have a direct flight and only have to deal with this one time instead of at 2 or 3 different plane changes... 😕

Re: questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

floridaguy
Aviator C

Sounds to me like you easily meet the criteria to pre board or at a minimum, get the "extra time" designation.

Re: questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Gate check the crutches and scooter, you'll retrieve them on the jetbridge when you arrive. While technically the able bodied teenager and toddler do not qualify for preboarding it is highly unlikely they would be asked to board in their assigned spot. Ask politely at the gate if you can all go and I'd bet you will have no issues, especially because it is a lot of stuff as you've described. It's very kind of you to think about leaving the front row seats available for other passengers. You may determine how many other preboarding passengers there are and decide to take all of the first row or split up into two rows. The car seat does need to occupy the window seat.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

floridaguy
Aviator C

You will probably find it easier to request a preboard.

Re: questions about knee scooters and pre boarding

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@floridaguy easier than what? No other suggestion was made.

 

--TheMiddleSeat